The increase in virtualization technology allows many advantages in having multiple “different devices” executing on a single hardware platform (software virtualization), or the generation of a hardware platform on which to execute from available hardware resources (hardware virtualization). As virtualization increases in use and becomes more common, the scenario can arise within a network (e.g., on an enterprise) where the number of identities that need to be managed in the enterprise grows exponentially. Virtualization allows for the provisioning and dropping of systems dynamically, which increases the complexity of identity management.
One particularly complex problem associated with identity management of multiple identities that can be dynamically provisioned is authentication of a device for purposes of network access and the application of network security policies. If multiple devices (entities) request authentication of a connection using a standard such as 802.1x (e.g., 802.11(a, b, g), 802.12, 802.16, etc.), the task of identity management may prove to be impractical on current systems. Under traditional approaches, an information technology administrator could be faced with needing to balance the security risk of introducing new systems against the productivity benefits accompanying virtualization.